270 THE IIEFORIMATION IN FRENCH SWITZERLAND.
9. Poetical. A hymn to Christ, free metrical versions of several psalms, and an epic (Ejnnicion Christo cantatum, 1541).!
10. Calvin edited Seneca, Be Clementia, with notes, 1532 ; a French translation of Melanchthon's Loci, with preface, 1546 ; and wrote preface to Olivetan's French Bible, 1535, etc.
The Adieus to the Little Council, and to the ministers of Geneva, delivered on his death-bed in 1564, form a worthy conclusion of the literary labors of this extraordinary teacher.
§ 68. Tributes to the Memory of Calvin.
Conip. the large collection of Opinions and Testimonies respecting the Writiyigs of Calvin, in the last volume of the English edition of his works published by the Calvin Translation Society, Edinburgh, 185i, pp. 376-1(54. I have borrowed from it several older testimonies.
No name in church history — not even Hildebrand's or Luther's or Loyola's — has been so much loved and hated, admired and abhorred, praised and blamed, blessed and cursed, as that of John Calvin. Living in a fiercely polemic age, and standing on the watch-tower of the reform movement in Western Europe, he was the observed of all observers, and exposed to attacks from every quarter. Religious and sectarian passions are the deepest and strongest. Melanchthon prayed for deliverance from "the fury of theologians." Roman Catholics feared Calvin as their most dangerous enemy, though not a few of them honorably admitted his virtues. Protestants were divided according to creed and prejudice : some regarding him as the first among the Reformers and the nearest to Paul ; others detesting his favorite doctrine of predestination. Even his share in the burning of Servetus was defended as just during the sixteenth and
1 Vols. V. 423-428, and VI. 212-224. A French metrical translation of the Epinicion appeared in Paris, 1555, under the title, Chant de Victoire chante a Jesus Christ, etc.
§ 68. TRIBUTES TO THE MEMORY OF CALVIN". 271
seventeenth centuries, but is now universally deplored or condemned.^
Upon the whole, the verdict of history is growingly in his favor. He improves upon acquaintance. Those who know him best esteem him most. The fruits of his labors are abundant, especially in the English-speaking world, and constitute his noblest monument. The slanderous charges of Bolsec, thougli feebly re-echoed by Audin, are no longer believed. All impartial writers admit the purity and integrity, if not the sanctity, of his character, and his absolute freedom from love of gain and notoriety. One of the most eminent skeptical historians of France goes so far as to pronounce him " the most Christian man " of his age. Few of the great luminaries of the Churcli of God have called forth such tributes of admiration and praise from able and competent judges.
The following selection of testimonies may be regarded as a fair index of the influence which this extraordinary man has exerted from his humble study in "the little corner" on the south-western border of Switzerland upon men of different ages, nationalities, and creeds, down to the present time.
1 Lu France Protestante par MM. Eugene et Eiiiile Haag, Paris, 2d ed. Tom. III. (1881), p. 508 : " Trois pcn-tis religieiix, divise's par des animosite's que le temps n'a pas encore assoupies, nous out transmis des documents sur la vie de cet homme illustre. Les uns, depuis I'apostat Bolsec jusqu'au ne'o-catholique romantique Audin, depuis le luthe'rien fanatique Westphai jusqu'aux ' vieitx genevois' Galiffe pere et fils, n^e'coutant que la voix d'line haine implacable ou d'une jalousie ficrieuse, nous le peignent comme une espece de sce'le'rat souille' des vices les plus honteux, comme un despots alte're' de sang, tandis que les autres, depuis T/ie'odore de Beze, son coUegue, jusqu'au pasteur Paul Henry, de Berlin, son z€l€ disciple, ce'dant a Ventrainenent d'une amitie trop indulgente ou d'une admiration un peu exalte'e, 7ious le pre'sentent comme un parfait type de la vertu.
" D'autres, dans ces derniers temps surtout, s'e'levant au-dessus d'e'troits pre'juge's dogmatiques, moins hommes de parti que philosophes, ont entrepris de juger cette grande figure historique avec I'impartialite que commande I'histoire ; ils ont vu en Calvin, non pas le fondateur d'une secte, mais une de ces hautes intelligences qui apparaissent de loin en loin pour dominer une e'poque, ' et r^pandent sur les jilns grandes choses I'eclat de leur propre grandeur.' "